Mining Tire Data Is the Future: Where Mining Operations Can Improve
🔧 Topics Covered:
In this episode, Joe discusses the evolving role of data in mining operations with Jesse Nunes and Mark. They explore the importance of data collection, tire inspection techniques, and the challenges faced in the mining industry. Jesse shares his journey as a data technician, highlighting the significance of accurate tire monitoring and the impact of technology on operations. The conversation also delves into training and education within the tire industry, emphasizing the need for continuous learning and adaptation to new technologies.
Show Notes:
Episode: Tire Tech Crushed by a 30,000 lb Loader... and Survived!
Host: Joseph, Mark, and Jesse
Runtime: 33 minutes
Summary: The podcast episode from “Around the Bead” focuses on the evolving role of data-driven tire management in mining and earth-moving industries, highlighting a new approach pioneered by East Bay Tire. Featuring Mindman Mark and Jesse Nunez, a full-time data technician, the discussion centers on the critical importance of collecting detailed tire and machine data to improve fleet operations, prevent costly downtime, and extend tire life. The episode explores the challenges faced by the tire industry, including a significant gap in experienced personnel caused by a hiring lull during the 2007 economic downturn, and how data analytics can help bridge this expertise gap.
Jesse shares insights from his role, which involves collecting extensive data on machine and tire conditions—such as air pressure, tread depth, cuts, and damages—across diverse fleets including mining trucks, loaders, graders, and scrapers. This data is analyzed through advanced systems to generate actionable reports that forecast tire wear, predict replacement needs, and identify maintenance opportunities that minimize unplanned downtime. Mark emphasizes the value of scheduling inspections during non-production hours to ensure accurate readings, especially for air pressure, which must be measured when tires are cool.
The conversation also delves into the harsh conditions that mining tires face, including exposure to rough terrain such as lava rock in Hawaii and wet climates, requiring specialized tire compounds designed for heat resistance or cut protection. Site severity studies, which evaluate road conditions, elevation changes, speed, and machine operation patterns through GPS, cameras, and drones, are introduced as cutting-edge methods to optimize tire selection and usage.
The podcast stresses the continued importance of fundamental tire care practices like proper valve caps and air pressure checks, even as advanced technologies like thermal imaging and pressure sensors gain traction. The hosts discuss the daily challenges of overload conditions and how operators often push tires to their limits, underscoring the need for expert knowledge and ongoing training. Both Mark and Jesse highlight the necessity of mentoring the next generation of tire technicians to preserve and grow industry expertise.
Finally, the episode looks forward to emerging technologies such as AI and autonomous equipment that utilize laser radar for hazard detection and machine safety, signaling a transformative future for mining operations. The episode closes with a commitment to bring comparative data on competing tire brands to future discussions, reinforcing the podcast’s dedication to educating and advancing tire management practices in connected industries.
What You'll Learn:
The mining and earth mover tire industry is increasingly driven by detailed data collection and analysis to improve fleet efficiency and reduce downtime.
A significant expertise gap exists in the tire industry due to a hiring freeze post-2007, driving the need for data-driven solutions and training.
Jesse Nunez, East Bay Tire’s first full-time data technician, collects comprehensive tire and machine data to generate predictive maintenance reports.
Tire inspections are best conducted during non-production times when tires are cool to ensure accurate air pressure readings.
Harsh mining conditions, like lava rock in Hawaii, demand specialized tire compounds tailored to heat resistance and cut protection.
Site severity studies employing GPS, drones, and cameras help optimize tire selection and operational practices on mining roads.
Emerging AI and autonomous vehicle technologies, including laser radar, promise to revolutionize machine safety and operational efficiency.
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Transcript (Excerpt)
00:00:01 - 00:01:34
[Music] Around the bead podcast, tire talk for trucking, mining, agriculture, and more. Your home for fleet solutions. Aiming to inform, pioneer, and entertain the tire world in connected industries. Sponsored by East Bay Tire, keeping essential industries moving forward. Around the bead is back. Today we have episode two of our mining and earth mover series featuring Mindman Mark and Jesse Nunez. We are talking next level data. Jesse is a full-time data technician at East Bay Tire and Mineman Mark. Jesse,
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you guys ready to kick the tires? Absolutely. So, uh, seems simple. check tires, pull data, but this is a relatively new role. Mark, you were instrumental in pioneering this idea. Where did it come from? Well, with almost 40 years in the business, I started to see a lack of industry experts and uh sales support. with the idea of the data being out there that could help us move the needle forward towards uh sales as well as preventable um situations to to help lower the cost of doing business. It it it's interesting you
00:01:39 - 00:02:57
bring that up. I've never really thought of that. We talk about it all the time about the aging population within the tire industry, both on a technician side, a sales side, even a ownership and management side. Um, uh, but what you're saying here is that we need more data to support the lack of industry experts that's coming in the future. Yes. Yep. Absolutely. um when the uh when the economy dumped really hard in 2007, we went through a a period of time where the industry um didn't hire a lot of new
00:02:17 - 00:03:13
faces. So, there's about a 10-year gap there where we just really lost a lot of expertise. I had never really thought about that way. Um and you're right, we're seeing less and less. Um certainly there's new faces coming into the industry now. Uh, but they're young. They're just getting started. And Jesse, that's kind of why you're here, right? Yeah, exactly. So, Jesse, you're a full-time data technician. That's all you do at East Bay Tire. That's all I do. What What
00:02:46 - 00:04:02
What does that mean? I mean, like, what what are you collecting? Why are you collecting it? How do you collect it? So when I go out to a fleet, I collect machine uh make and model, tire make and model, uh machine hours, tire on hours, um and go around, check the unit, look for any cuts, any damages that I can see. Um take air pressure, tread depth. Um, and and you say a fleet, you're it's it's everything from a trucking fleet to a mining uh operation. Mining fleet, hall trucks, loaders,
00:03:25 - 00:04:39
graders, scrapers, um, everything. So, you you collect all that data, you're putting it into a system, you're you're putting it into a system. The system gives me a report back. um gives me um I can give you a cost per cost per hour um wear percentage um can you do forecasting? Can you do projections? Yeah, forecasting give you projections of you know when you're going to need new tires. Um what do you guys do with it? I mean you you have a report, you've got all this forecasted information. Um you've you're
00:04:02 - 00:05:15
you're tracking all of the tires. What what does that mean? what do you functionally do with it for for a mine or a trucking plate? So, after Jesse collects the data and does a fleet survey, um it it goes into a pretty high-tech report system and Jesse will identify any rock strikes, cuts, bruises on a tire. Um he can identify wheel situations. Um several instances that he can uh identify and document. We put that into a report. We can take that to the customer and have a conversation about
00:04:39 - 00:05:51
it. And at that point, we can look at, you know, uh possibly doing whatever work needs to be done when the machine is down versus having the machine go down uh in a production mode. We can we can do it on the weekends. We can do it after hours. we can do it um when the machine's in for maintenance and uh help cut that uh loss of production. How when you when you're going through a fleet, you you talk about bruises, cuts, scrapes. I mean, that's part of the job, but how much how much of a fleet has some sort
00:05:14 - 00:06:15
of damaged wheel or or tire out there that is concerning? How often does that come up? All the time, honestly. Um you more than you would think. Um, you know, you get you get into situations a lot of the times where you the driver, the operator just just doesn't see it. Um, you know, they're they're doing a quick check around and but they're not taking the time to really look at the tire. Every time when I go out, I'm looking all the way around at the bottom of the tire, the backside of the tire,
00:05:45 - 00:06:40
everywhere to look for any type of cut. Um, I check how deep it is. You know, I think those are some of the things, too, that they don't realize. They just see, oh, it's a small little cut, but they don't realize how deep that cut is. They don't realize that there's exposed steel there. Um, all those things. It's got to be hard to do. I mean, I I I spent an hour this morning watching CAT 9992 videos with my kid. I got two young boys. And you think about how big those machines are and how high you are up in
00:06:13 - 00:07:09
the cab. They don't want you out of that equipment. I mean, you've got to inspect it in a safe place. Um, which brings me to my next question. How do you check the tires during mining operations? I mean, are you going weekends? Are you going night time? Are you going morning? How do you guys do this? Yes. So, best time is, you know, downtime. So, on the weekend, you know, when they're down on a Sunday, I go out on a Sunday. And that also gives me the 24 hours to let the machine sit. So, I'm getting an accurate
00:06:41 - 00:07:40
reading of the of the air pressure. What do you mean by that? So when it's when the when the hall truck when a loader when it's running it's the tire is going to heat up and the air pressure is going to rise. So when I go out there and I check it when it's running it's not an accurate pressure of what it what it actually is. You have to check it cool. You have to check it cool to get the accurate uh I'm sorry um an accurate air pressure. Okay. So you you guys have to work around the mine schedule for this.
00:07:10 - 00:08:14
Yes. Yep. We tentatively try to do it um in non-production hours. Are are you going to see a big variation in a in a region based off of the heat? I mean like when you I say like summer versus winter. I mean what about checking tires during the winter time on a Sunday when it's cold as heck uh compared to the summertime? Typically not running temperature. Um the inside running temperature pretty much remains the same. um ambient air temperature doesn't affect it as much as you might think.
00:07:42 - 00:08:52
Yeah. Um when the when it's running, so it will it will still be cool to the outside, but the inside running temperature is still going to be substantial. Okay. So, you are collecting what you feel is important to notify a mine on. What are their biggest questions when they see this information? What do what do they prioritize? What questions are they asking you? mostly downtime. What What can we do do to prevent downtime? Um when Jesse sees a cut or something like that, we'll start to monitor it and we may monitor
00:08:17 - 00:09:28
it for several months, several different um uh fleet checks. And in several cases, you know, we'll get a call um where an operator will identify a cut or a situation on a tire and we can go to our reports and say, "Look, we've we've identified that last month or two months ago. We are monitoring it. You don't need to down that piece of equipment. We feel it's safe." And then um schedule that for a time when we can do that, take it out of service. That's interesting, huh? That's got to be
00:08:52 - 00:10:04
pretty valuable. Very valuable. Yeah. Yeah. When you start talking thousands and thousands of dollars, tens of thousands of dollars um in operating cost, um taking it out of service is substantial. Okay. So, Jesse, how'd you how'd you get to be East Bay Tires first data technician? Well, uh, before this, uh, uh, I was working at a golf course, uh, during COVID and was looking for a different job and East Bay was hiring a driver and so I showed up for the interview and they said, "Well, we
00:09:29 - 00:10:23
actually don't need a driver. We could use someone in the warehouse though. Do you want to work in the warehouse?" And I said, "Yeah." And started working in the warehouse for East Bay. And um, couple weeks into it, they said, "Hey, we actually need a driver. Do you want to learn how to drive?" So, I started making deliveries for East Bay and just kind of kept my head down and you know uh I loved working for the company. They they treated me really well and um months after into it um my boss Tim kind
00:09:56 - 00:10:57
of came along and said he had an opportunity for me. I met Mark and uh we started this whole data thing. Cool. Very cool. You pretty good golfer sometimes. So, one of the questions we ask on this show is and and your story is is probably similar to a lot of us. I mean, that's the camaraderie of the tire industry is, "Hey, I need you to do this. Hey, I need you to do this. Hey, I need you to do this." And before you know it, you landed something you love, right? Or you built something that you
00:10:25 - 00:11:32
love. Um, but what was your big dog energy, your BDE moment where you went, "Hey, this is this is something I want to pursue. This isn't working at a golf course. This isn't loading tires in a truck. This is something that I might want to chase. You know, uh I started working with Mark uh couple weeks, you know, we're sitting in the office every day going over tire sizes, air pressures. You know, I was completely new to this stuff. And Espace sends us off to Hawaii to do my first
00:10:59 - 00:11:56
fleet survey. And, you know, it it changed my life. you know, it made me fall in love with tires and realize that, you know, this is something that I'm going to do for the rest of my life. Now, had you been there before? I had been there once before. Um, but not like that. I had only been to Wy Ki. Um, I hadn't been to the Big Island, hadn't been to Maui. Um, it's it's been an experience uh with East Bay. Very cool. So, tell me about Hawaii Mind Sights and Track and Tires over there. What's that
00:11:28 - 00:12:41
like? What's it what's different about it than here? What's different about it is um I feel like you know we talk about um like the knowledge and the gap. Um I feel like there's definitely a gap there. Um they I from my understanding um it's an old school thing of you know their air pressures being so low. Um, and they are ruining tires out there with their extremely low air pressures that they're running. They also run in a harsher environment though to a degree. I mean,
00:12:04 - 00:13:06
isn't isn't lava rock a component to almost every mine site over there? Yes, definitely. And especially the wet conditions. Wet conditions. Uh, you know, it rains often and and then you also get uh the harsh lava rock. It's a tough condition to work in. Yeah. Well, that's that's got to be exciting for you guys to go over there and and help. I mean, to to to give a little credit, it's island mindset is completely different. You've got limited resources. You got a limited population, um limited
00:12:36 - 00:13:36
exposure. So, for you guys to go over there and be able to help those operations, uh that's got to be exciting. I'd rather work on making big improvement than I would work on 2% at a time. You know what I mean? Yeah. And it's it's noticeable. you can you can make some big changes over there or make some small changes and and make uh uh big returns. Yeah. You're you you've always said that you can make the mindsite improve their their budget or improve their tire performance by 10%
00:13:05 - 00:14:18
the first year upwards of 20 to 30% the second year. But in operations like that, you could probably touch 15 to 20% the first year. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Okay. Um, biggest piece of equipment you're tracking now? Uh, Cat 9992. Cat 9992. Okay. Uh, with trip 7 trucks? Yes. Okay. Um, sight severity studies. I've been waiting for this, Mark. Um, I don't even really know what a sight severity study is. I mean, I' I've certainly seen some of the pictures and some of the the videos and we've talked about hall truck
00:13:42 - 00:14:54
runs, but what is a sight severity study? And is it is it defined or are we defined? Well, we're defining it um at the at the local level. Of course, uh you know, Michelin and Bridgestone and and all the big corporates have their definition and we've somewhat followed their rules. Um, but we've uh taken it to the dealer level and what it is is we are going in, we're checking hall road conditions, we're checking elevation changes. Um, we're trying to gather a tons miles per
00:14:17 - 00:15:35
hour tmp um level, but we're looking at the severity of the conditions that it's working. How how long is that vehicle running? What is the turn on it? Um, is the loader working on the face or is it doing uh load and carry? We take all those into considerations so that we can identify the correct tire and air pressure. Where do you begin with that and what tools are you using? Well, we have uh we have a uh GPS system um that picks up speed um acceleration um changes the level uh uh elevation
00:14:56 - 00:16:13
level. That's our first and foremost. Um, we also have a camera system and uh newly started uh a new drone system. What are you guys doing with drones? Well, we're going to do uh we're going to be able to see it the machine physically working. Um we're going to be able to physically see its turn. Um is the is the turn radius a little too sharp in that corner? Is it pulling too many G's in that corner? um what is the what is the geforce we can we can calculate that um and just a basic overall picture of
00:15:35 - 00:17:04
identifying what this machine is doing. So give me and uh and the audience obviously a explanation of the geforce and what you're talking about on a turning radius. I mean when would that come into play? How could you help a operator or a mind site with that? Well, you could um you could help change the radius of the turn going on a hall road. Um ideally we want to keep it under uh 0.1g. Okay. Um closer to uh 05g, half g, half of a tenth of a g. Um, so you know, we may express to them that uh we'd like to see that radius open up
00:16:19 - 00:17:35
a little bit. Maybe add another uh 10 or 15 20 feet to it, 50 feet to it. Um, that's probably the most common thing that we see with hall road conditions. That's part of the site severity along with the drone. What about heat? Are you guys looking at at heat buildup in tires? Uh compounding? Definitely. We look at compounding. We look at the length of the run if we can. We try to to capture uh internal um running temperature of the tire. We have a couple different um situations where we
00:16:57 - 00:18:12
can uh put different monitoring systems inside the tire and track that as well as air pressure and heat. So I want to come I want to come back to that. But from a compounding perspective, uh what type of compounds are there out there for tires? Um on the mining side, and how do you choose? Well, that's where we look at the tons miles per hour. Um we're going to look at uh hall road conditions. Do we need a cut resistant um compound? Are we looking at a heat resistant compound if it's a a long haul um with
00:17:35 - 00:18:34
excessive heat buildup? Um there's just a lot of things that go into it. How big the load is, how fast it's running. But there's there's heat, there's cut, and there's standard. Those are the three most basic, but then they go into even more. So there's there's couple different cut compounds. There's a couple different um heat compounds in the same in the same model in the same manufacturer or or just different uh same make, model, brand of tire, the whole nine yards can have
00:18:05 - 00:19:11
three, four, five, six different compounds. Are they available or is it like custom production? They're available. You just you just have to ask for it. And is that typically in a hall truck uh rigid rigid dump? Um or you also see that uh option in loaders? It's we're seeing it in loaders as well as rigid dumps. The See, that's kind of new to me. I really didn't know there was compounding options in loaders. Uh is that recent? Are they expanding upon that or has that always been that case?
00:18:37 - 00:20:03
It's probably been the last 25 years that we've seen it come into play more so. Um but it's always been there. Are are there options on articulated dumps as well? Not for the most part. We don't see that as much. Why not, you think? Um, for the most part, you're you're looking at the TRA code. Um, whether it's a E3 or E4, you can pretty much um dedicate that tire based on the TR code. Okay. Okay. So, uh, going going to heat buildup, we've got compounds, um, and, uh, the tech that is available.
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I saw Cal Tires got like a thermal imagery setup now that they're running at some offshore. Uh, Mindsight's Australia, Chile, it looks like, where they're seeing where the heat buildup is on the tire. Continental has a pressure sensor system that shows heat and pressure. Um, you think that's something that's going to take off? Yes. Um, with the cost of tires rising so substantially, um, Michelin's got a system. Bridgestone has a system. Everybody is going to that. Um, it's a technology that is just
00:19:55 - 00:20:52
going to have to be put into play um to be efficient. Okay. So, let me challenge you on this. You've got would you rather have thermal imagery or would you rather have an air pressure system? Well, one's just as important as the other. There's if you've got too much heat, you're going to have too much or too little air. If you've got too little air or too much here, you're going to have a thermal issue. Yeah. So, that's kind of my question. I see we're we're
00:20:26 - 00:21:45
bringing out all this tech, but sometimes I I think to myself, hey, if we don't have a guy like Jesse out there doing pressure checks and putting a program together for fleets, what's the point of having the thermal imagery if you're not doing that or you don't have a pressure sensor system? Well, and and that leads me to um the East Bay Tire philosophy where um we're dedicated to doing the basics the best and with all the technology and everything that we can do, we need still need to
00:21:05 - 00:22:10
put a valve cap on the on the valve. Okay. Um, I run into people that have million-dollar programs, but they don't have a $3 valve stem all the time valve. I I I'm with you. I if if it frustrates me because I see some of these these systems and they're a lot of them are coming out on the a side and which we can delve into that a little bit. I mean, they're all proprietary. They go behind the wheel. Um, and the argument being that pressure helps with yields on an a side. It helps with traction, helps
00:21:38 - 00:22:51
with fuel efficiency, but also they're not using that equipment 40% of the time. Very different than a mine site, right? So, have a system in place, but what does it cost a farmer to just air up their tractor when it comes time to seeding, harvesting, planting, etc.? Um, you put a $5,000 system behind a behind a tractor to get the air pressure up. That's that seems like it's hard to pencil for me. Well, and back to my comment, you just got to do the basics. Um, you know, you you've got to you've got to do the
00:22:14 - 00:23:23
basics better than anybody else. Start with that and then build on that. If you don't do that basic stuff first, the rest of it irrelevant. Okay. Um, can you tell us a little bit about uh heavy loads and light loads and uh different changes in a line site? I mean, one of the things I think of are they running the same hall for years and years and years? I can't imagine that's got to be the case. They've got to change up their operation from year to year, change up the loads. Um, how does
00:22:48 - 00:24:12
how does load change tires wear and how do mine sites change their operations over time? Well, that's that's tricky because there's so many different levels um to look at. Are they are they stripping? Are they taking the overburden um off the site? Are they loading it up high and hauling the overburden down or are they starting at the bottom taking the um product up? It changes the way the the the truck handles, the way the truck operates, changes the the load of the truck. Um, if it's, you know, top soil, it's going
00:23:31 - 00:24:40
to weigh different than granite rock, right? If it's um coal, it's going to be different than the the overburden. So, it's it's a constant change. How often do you run into overload? Overload situations. Yeah. Oh, almost every day. Every day. Almost every single day. That's actually affecting the tire performance. Yes. What do you What do you think a tire can carry above its weight? It's its designated weight capacity. Is something that I I went to a factory uh last week
00:24:06 - 00:25:26
and we were talking about I mean they do design the tires to carry more than it says it can carry. And I and I agree. Um there's I'm guessing there's probably um a legitimate 15% um 10 to 15% variance there. Um the one thing that I like to kind of point out to a lot of people that um when we're talking about tires, they're saying, "Well, you know, I can hit that rock or I can do this with that or I can, you know, go over this." Kind of like us in our trucks. We can do a lot of stuff on
00:24:45 - 00:26:03
them. Yeah. And and that's to my point. Yeah. Your truck is is designed to run at, you know, 3/4 ton truck at 85 pounds of air pressure and carry x amount of load. You hardly ever do that. And your and your truck's probably at 60 pounds of air pressure. You're saying I don't run my truck as badass as it's supposed to run? Right. Most of us don't, Mark. most of us. But on the on the equipment side, we're running those tires at max. We're running at max inflation. We're working
00:25:24 - 00:26:47
that tire to to its max load, what should be its max load. So, the perception that a lot of people have on tires that they use on their family car when they've got it at 50% of its capacity. Yeah. versus a hall truck that's at 100% of its capacity 90% of the time. So when I put it into that phrase, a lot of people will stop and think, "Oh, you're right. That tire is already maxed out. There isn't that extra 10% to go." Okay. Do you think I'm going to kind of go a little roundabout on improvements for
00:26:05 - 00:27:22
our industry on a on a dealer side? What do you think the number one thing is that dealers should be doing better when it comes to earth mover and mining operations? Say tire dealers across the board. Um training uh definitely uh see a lack of training and safety concerns. Okay. And you you mean you just mean that from a salesperson to a technician to right um right from the right from the janitor to the CEO they they need to be trained everything related to the job that they're doing. And then on a mine
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site from a from a a miner's perspective a mining operation what would you like to see them improve when it comes to their their tires and their operations? I I like it when they um offer us, the dealer, an opportunity to talk to the operators um to express some of our concerns to the operators so that they know that that little piece of steel that they see isn't necessarily a reason to down that piece of equipment. Yeah. um in the mine tires, in the in the heavy equipment tires, a lot of times a small amount of
00:27:23 - 00:28:30
steel um that you wouldn't want to see on your passenger tire. You wouldn't want to see it on your on your uh semitr isn't really a major factor in a mine tire until it gets, you know, into a certain point. Um and you do that. I've been with you. You you do operator, you know, more or less education, right? We will. And we and we try to emphasize that to any of our sites to give us that opportunity to talk to the operators. Okay. Um you talked about training and I want to get to tech here in a second,
00:27:56 - 00:29:06
but uh Jesse, you've had any training or we just got pulled from a golf course and piece it's a piece of cake, right? I mean just you know you load the balls in the in the baskets and then you you check the 992s, right? No. Uh months and months of training. Um, you know, when I first started this, um, I mean, I would say for six months, you know, every check that I did, Mark was right there with me, you know, right there with me explaining, you know, um, why why the air pressure is low and and why that cut
00:28:31 - 00:29:34
happened. Um, you know, think, you know, everything. Um, Mark has taught me everything that I know for And you've also had exposure to third party training, right? Yes. Um, I've been to Yeah, I've been to, you know, Michelin training um twice now um in South Carolina. Um, it's it's it's been awesome. Yeah. And TIA, too, right? Yes. And TIA training. TIA, Tire Industry Association. Okay. So, it's not as easy as it seems. No, it's not as easy as it seems. There's always something to
00:29:03 - 00:30:16
learn. I'm still learning something new every single day. And let's let's be a little frank. You're you're young. You're confident. You got to think, hey, you know, I can do this. But once you got into it, how long until it took you to be confident, hey, I think I got a handle on what I'm doing now. Six months. Six months. Uh, eight months. Yeah. It it took a while, you know. Um, especially, you know, Mark pays attention to everything, you know, so being able to have the confidence of him to me go out
00:29:39 - 00:30:36
and do a a fleet survey on my own. Yeah. Um, you know, it it took me a while, you know. Um, even when he first started to want to send me out on my own, I didn't I didn't think I was ready, you know. um going out with him and doing a a fleet survey, you know, he he catches everything. You know, he sees everything. Yeah. He's been doing it for a very long time and so he knows where to look. He knows all the nook and crannies to look for and everything. That's experience and that's that's
00:30:08 - 00:31:17
mentorship. I mean, that's that's what we're here to do between generations and as an industry is create more Jesses from all the experience, rough cuts, everything that you've been through, taking that to the next generation. Yeah. And that's and that's uh probably one of my biggest rewards in my career is uh is helping this next generation come in and be the expertise that uh that the industry needs. Yeah. So, I want to finish with tech. Um, what's a solution? Just imagine it. Just take a
00:30:42 - 00:31:40
minute. Something that could be valuable to the dealer, to the operator, to the line site that doesn't exist today. We've talked about pressure sensors. We've talked about thermal imaging. Uh, but we still go back to doing the basics the best. Is there is there something that you can say, "Hey, if someone could solve for this, this would really change our industry. Well, either one of you I I I think we're seeing it. I think we're starting to see uh some of the autonomous
00:31:11 - 00:32:23
equipment come into play. Um I think they're starting to have um the AI systems that are coming into play, the the new ones that I've been watching and and paying attention to. You know, they've got the uh the laser radar for the hall roads. Um that alone is now tell us about laser radar. So it sweeps the it sweeps the road ahead of the machine. So it can determine if there's a a vehicle there and stop the truck. Yeah. But it can also determine a um uh a rock in the middle of the road or
00:31:47 - 00:32:56
where there's a wash out or a situation where that truck should avoid and um it will uh shut the machine down until somebody comes out and verifies that it's okay or you know uh moves the rock. Um and that's uh that's going to be a gamecher. That's going to be that's that's upon us and it's it's not out there in every mindset, but it will be. Okay. All right. Well, we're getting to our time. The next time that you guys are here in the studio, we want to see
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versus versus, right? A tire versus another tire, a hall truck tire versus another hall truck tire, brand for brand, how they perform in the same application. You guys bring the data. Absolutely. Sounds good. Do it. Okay. Thank you guys. Let's air this one up. Thanks. [Music] Around the bead podcast, tire talk for trucking, mining, agriculture, and more. Your home for fleet solutions. Aiming to inform, pioneer, and entertain the tire world in connected industries. Sponsored by East Bay Tire.
00:33:05 - 00:33:10
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